On Friday, four thousand pediatric caregivers sent an open letter to Emmanuel Macron to deplore unsuitable working conditions and care, the results of “irresponsible political inaction”.
“The President of the Republic took note of this arrest and he immediately asked the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health so that an immediate action plan could be put in place”, declared Sunday on Cnews the door- word of the government Olivier Véran.
“The hospital is facing an epidemic of bronchiolitis (…) it comes early in the year and so we trigger where necessary the famous white plans to recall additional staff and to have better cooperation in territories,” he said.
The “white plan” contains organizational measures intended to deal with an exceptional health situation or increased activity of a hospital.
Mr. Véran assured the government’s determination to “ensure that the situation improves”.
Health Minister François Braun must detail the measures of the plan at midday.
In their open letter, the caregivers denounced a series of dysfunctions, ranging from hospitalization of children in unsuitable places, to distant transfers, postponements of scheduled surgeries, or even premature discharge from hospital. So many degradations which led to “delays in care” and “the endangerment of children”.
According to them, the bronchiolitis epidemic is saturating already “bloodless” services, while “an ever-increasing number of paramedical and medical staff positions are vacant”.
– “Tensions fortes” –
This respiratory disease which affects babies and sometimes leads them to hospital has now spread to almost all of mainland France, apart from Corsica and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region.
For two weeks, it has resulted in “a marked increase in emergency visits” among children under two, followed by more hospitalizations than last year, said Thursday the director general of the regional agency of Health (ARS) of Ile-de-France, Amélie Verdier.
At the risk of saturation of hospitals: in pediatric intensive care, already 14 young patients had to be transferred outside Ile-de-France – to the CHUs of Amiens and Rouen in particular.
“We have strong, even very strong, tensions in the pediatric departments of the region”, declared Ms. Verdier to AFP, explaining that bronchiolitis was added to the “very significant difficulties” linked to “vacant positions “.
In their letter, the caregivers also highlighted a “loss of meaning” in their profession, “a consequence of bureaucratic governance and activity-based pricing, leading to overall exhaustion and a massive departure of hospital staff”.
They demanded from the President of the Republic “urgent and lasting measures to promote the return of nursing staff to hospitals with our children” and asked him to “act urgently”.
Saturday morning, the government had already said it was “aware of the problem”, through the voice of the Minister Delegate for Health, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo.
The minister said she was counting “on solidarity between hospitals, on solidarity with city medicine” and working on “the longer opening in the evening of medical care homes”, specifying that she was providing the government’s “support” to caregivers. .
“The Ségur de la santé has made it possible to revalue the health professions, it was a catch-up, we know that we still have to work on the hospital”, she conceded.
